Kmcalpin

A toss up between Declan and O'hara but plumped for the former as he had little support around him.

Awaiting clearance as of early this morning. If his registration is through is there not a cup rule to exclude late signings? Is he fit?

Sounds good to me as he's the type of player we've been lacking. A short term deal so no great commitment from us. As with any newcomer to Fir Park lets give him our support and see what he can do. A serious question has been asked ......... and now answered.

Some team selections, formations, tactics and substitutions. Although January is a difficult window we have failed to sign an out and out striker - also a mistake last summer. I'm not having a go at Robbo incidentally as he's a young inexperienced manager. The Accies games was a shocker and despite a break we've struggled to recover. On the plus side, we're still in 3rd and will finish in the top 6. Relegation is not an issue. The players too must stand up and be counted as we enter a string of more winnable games starting on Saturday.

We've played poorly in the last few games and mistakes have been made off the field so serious questions do need to be asked. However we've not become a poor team overnight. So no cause to panic let's go into the cup game up for a contest. No reason to be pessimistic.

Worryingly, that's also true of the Livingston and Accies games. In the last few games our midfield has been found out. Central midfielders are just not doing it for a variety of reasons. Allan Campbell looks burnt out as I've said before. We're toothless up front, as we all know, Scott or not.

Is it not 3 consecutive blank sheets now? Sounds like Livingston last Saturday. I was a bit surprised by the line up - 2 wingers but only 2 striker.

No Ndjoli tonight?

According to Alison Conroy of Radio Clyde Tony Watt is training with us without any commitment, according to Robbo.

Undoubtedly Long is the best striker we have but his style is totally unsuited to a ploughing a lone furrow up front. He can't compete physically with hulking central defenders nor can he hold the ball up. On top of that its hard for him to make an impact if he receives no service like Saturday past. Even the best strikers in the world struggle to score if they don't have the ball. he needs another striker to play alongside him to bring him into the game. I'm not sure who should play alongside him tomorrow night as I've not seen much of our 2 loanees or indeed of Manzinga, but someone neeeds to give him close support.

If we go with one striker up front then Long must drop out. He cannot play with his back to goal and doesn't have the physicality to play as a lone striker. Its just not his game. The only options would be to play the untried Ndjoli or the raw Manzinga in that role. Personally I'd go with 2 strikers up front. I think we'll try to pack the midfield and therefore we could see O'Hara come back in. But I'm not the manager.

Rest Allan Campbell to ensure he's fit and ready for Saturday. We'll need his zeal and energy in Paisley. According to Robbo, our 2 new loan signings may be involved.

I hadn't heard that Iain but it doesn't surprise me in the least. I had assumed, maybe wrongly, that he wouldn't play for us this season, or indeed again. Does that update mean that he may appear in the final game as a sub? Time will tell.

I don't agree about Main but yes Dykes is the kind of player we should have signed last summer. Maybe we were in for him but he didn't want to join us or we couldn't meet his demands I don't know. We had months to source a traditional No 9 but didn't do so for whatever reason.

Absolutely Gordon. We seem to have a plethora of struggling wingers but very few strikers.

From highlights, published reports and posters comments, Gillespie apart, the whole team seemed to be lack lustre, jaded, and disorganised. I don't think James Scott's departure had anything to do with the performance though. The players obviously had a bad day but off the field decisions no doubt also played a part in our downfall. As I wrote earlier I'm curious as to why Tait was preferred to Grimshaw unless the latter is not fit. I can understand why Aarons wasn't in the squad but we haven't seen much of NdJoli since he signed. These are only loan signings and so have a limited period to make an impact. Our problems up fronty are fairly widely known but thats now several times this season that our central midfield has gone completely AWOL. There could be several reasons for that. To an extent you have to feel sorry for the defence if they have no protection in front of them, which did seem to be the case yesterday. That said they didn't cover themselves in glory at Livi's goal - ATS was completely unmarked at the back post. We're discussing this loss with incomplete information but I'm sure the management will have a far better understanding of the root cause of the defeat. Like OTF above I think there's potential for freefall if we're not careful.

Really? The first 20 minutes excepted, I thought that was the worst performance from a Well team for several years. If so thats scary.

Agree 100% but we just don't have the players to do this.

Not at the game today....fortunately. Ok we can all have a one off bad day at the office but this seemed to a continuation of the last 70 minutes of the Accies game a month ago. By all accounts only Gillespie emerged with any credit, though I presume Long also cannot really be blamed due to his lack of support. More questions need to be asked of our midfield as they were again flattened and dominated by a team below us in the league. I don't know what questions need to be asked though. Curious as to why an off form Tait was preferred to Grimshaw today although thats a relatively minor issue in the great scheme of things. Should we rest Allan Campbell on Wednesday night?

Unless Aarons is fit enough to replace Illic. Livi will deploy every means possible to get and keep the ball in our box for as long as possible. That said they'll favour route 1.

On reflection I'm comfortable with Scott's transfer. Whilst he is an emerging talent I wouldn't say he's been a mainstay of the team. The upfront cash, which added to fees received for Stuart McKinstry, Jake Hastie, Reece MacAlear and Kyle Semple will amount to about £2m this financial year. A nice sum and in line with our business model. That will allow us to pay off the modest residual debt of £80K (meaning we are now 100% debt free), invest some more cash in the war chest, pay for other projects like the youth academy, and keep more for a rainy day. It might help to underwrite improved offers for the likes of Polworth, Campbell and Long. Could we have received more? Probably yes. However we are not Dundee United and most Scots players from provincial clubs are undervalued by bigger English outfits. I hope that our reputation grows to match that of United to the extent that a Motherwell "label" is automatically worth a few hundred grand extra, irrespective of the player's individual talent. I hope it won't impact negatively on the playing side. The Hibs game proved beyond all doubt that we are/were very lightweight up front. Hopefully Ndjoli can fill that role along with Long. I suspect that Mazinga is a longer term project. Aarons will provide us with a threat on the right to counterbalance Hylton. Sloth's departure will free up a place in central midfield for a youngster like Jamie Semple or more likely Dean Cornelius to progress. Its impossible to predict how the transfer window will impact on results as business done by other clubs will no doubt have an impact. Mid sized rivals have almost all been busy bringing in players as we knew they would. They may have picked up some gems but also some dross. Quality V Quantity as the old saying goes.

Probably Livingston will be saturating the pitch, Accies style, to ensure the ball is hard to control on the deck. Robbo has said that Hylton and Long are both fit.

I hope that we have 2 strikers lined up if Scott goes south. As things stand we are a striker down. Hopefully we know what we're doing if Scott departs as we're pushing for 3rd and have a cup tie coming up.

We do the Centenary Suite once a year and it's been excellent. That's all I can say.

Man of many clubs, Alan Martin signs for Edinburgh City.